Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom

Hugh Thomas’s book explores the whole sweep of Cuban history from the English capture of Havana in 1762 through the years of Spanish and United States domination down to the twentieth century and the extraordinary revolution of Fidel Castro. ‘So much that seems obscure in the present Cuban scene’, Hugh Thomas writes, ‘becomes more comprehensible if set against the experiences of the previous four or five generations.’ Accordingly, throughout this two-hundred-year period the author relates the political, economic and social events of Cuba; in particular he set Cuba’s greatest crop, sugar, in the context of slavery and with the Atlantic slave trade and the development of Cuba’s relations with the United States and the other states of Latin America.
First published in 1971, The Pursuit of Freedom is still one of the most important and authoritative books on this complex country – marrying Hugh Thomas’s unique skills as an historian with an intricate and absorbing subject.